Taking On `Tattoo` Was Bigger Job Than Thought

June 7, 1986

Actor Herve Villechaize, 3-foot-11 co-star of the old Fantasy Island television series, was arrested in Burbank, Calif., for kicking and threatening a 6-foot-3 man who tried to serve him court papers from his ex- wife Donna Hagen, police said Friday. Villechaize, 43, who played Ricardo Montalban`s sidekick Tattoo, was booked Thursday on suspicion of battery after Eric Brownson filed a complaint, police said. Brownson told investigators that when he served the papers involving a civil action by Hagen, Villechaize threw the papers down and stomped on them, then grabbed his arm, kicked his leg several times and pointed his finger at him, saying, ``You`re dead.``

MTV HIRES FIRST BLACK VIDEO JOCKEY

MTV, which gets criticized for not showing more black acts, now has its first black video jockey. She`s British-born Julie Brown, who has been working as a pop music reporter for TV-AM, a London morning news show who also starred in The Disco Queen.

CHANNEL 7 SIGNS UP `LIVE AT 5` ANCHOR

WSVN-Ch. 7 has signed Frank Robertson as co-anchor for Live at 5, a one- hour, Monday-Friday newscast that the Miami/Fort Lauderdale NBC station will begin on Aug. 1. Robertson, 35, is under contract to KTVK -- the Phoenix, Ariz., ABC affiliate -- until July. Channel 7 news director David Choate said he viewed at least 100 audition tapes and flew two candidates for the anchor job to Miami before selecting Robertson, a graduate of Ohio University, this week. ``It wasn`t until he got here that we learned he and his co-anchor, Denise White, had worked together at WXEX in Richmond in 1981,`` said Choate. ``They`re already friends.``

-- Bill Kelley

VETERANS SURE AREN`T FONDA JANE

Jane Fonda has become an issue in the Senate race in Missouri. A group called Missouri Veterans Who Haven`t Forgotten is demanding that Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods return a $2,000 campaign contribution from Fonda because of her anti-war work duing the 1960s and `70s. Woods has repeatedly said that just because she accepts a contribution from someone doesn`t mean she totally agrees with the person. ``If these people think Jane Fonda`s money is so bad, why didn`t they protest her contributions to the Veterans of Foreign Wars?`` said Mark Ulven, a Woods spokesman.

REAGAN ADDS NEW BLOOPER TO THE LIST

President Reagan added some footage to the presidential bloopers tape Friday by mispronouncing the last name of French existentialist writer Albert Camus. He was invoking Camus to urge the House to provide $100 million in military and humanitarian aid for the Nicaraguan rebels, saying, ``The spirit is of no avail against the sword but . . . the spirit together with the sword will always win out over the sword alone.`` Reagan pronounced the name of the Nobel laureate as ``Kay-mus`` rather than ``Kah-moo.`` It is understandable that the president was unfamiliar with Camus, whose politics were considerably to the left of Reagan`s.

SOME GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE

Comedian Bob Hope is never without a quip. When a jet carrying him and wife Delores to San Diego developed engine trouble and made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Burbank, he was reported to have said, ``They couldn`t jump start the plane in the air, so they had to land.``

-- One of the secrets of the universe -- Dick Clark`s age -- has been revealed. The American Bandstand man appeared on Donahue Thursday and was asked about his age by a member of the audience. He tried to dodge the issue at first before saying he is 56.

-- Now that Senate sessions are being televised, President Reagan has offered some advice: ``You learn your lines, don`t bump into the furniture, and in kissing scenes keep your mouth closed.``